S.D. leaders attack rule for coal-fired power plants

EPA regulation on course to become final Nov. 16

Oct. 17, 2011

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Read the proposed rule at goo.gl/SJRyn.

Long roadThe Utility MACT was required by the Clean Air Act amendments passed in 1990. But utilities were given special consideration, and the EPA had to conduct studies and submit a report to Congress before the toxics standards could apply to power plants. EPA submitted its report to Congress in 1998. Then, in 2000, the EPA moved to include power plants in its air toxics standards. The agency reversed course in 2005, instead introducing a cap-and-trade system for mercury emissions, but that approach was vacated by a federal appeals court in 2008. A coalition of environmental and public health groups sued the government in late 2008 to force the EPA's hand. The settlement of this case, in 2010, required the EPA to finalize an air toxics rule for power plants by Nov. 16, 2011. A utilities trade group, with the backing of South Dakota and 24 other states, has asked the court to delay this rule for a year.Source: EPA, Congressional Research Service

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Read the proposed rule at goo.gl/SJRyn and the source documents at argusleader.com.

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South Dakota's political leaders are lobbying hard against a new federal rule that will, for the first time, limit the toxic air pollution that can be emitted from coal-fired power plants.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a letter this month urging President Obama to shelve the utility air toxics rule, also known as the Utility MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology). It was proposed in March by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined 24 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief on behalf of the Utility Air Regulatory Group, a trade group that has asked a federal court to delay the rule for a year.

And the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission wants federal energy regulators to study how the rule - and others like it - would affect the nation's power supply and the price of electricity. By court order, the MACT rule will be made final by Nov. 16.

The rule establishes limits on the amount of mercury, arsenic, acid gases and other toxins that can be emitted by large coal-fired plants. Of principal concern to environmental and public health advocates is mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause delays in child development. According to the EPA, coal-fired units account for half of all mercury emissions in the U.S.

Utilities will have up to four years to comply with the new standards. But critics say the cost of compliance, estimated by the EPA at $11 billion annually, will force coal plants to shut down and put an end to the era of cheap, reliable power.

"It is bad enough when the lights go out because of a natural disaster. ... But there is no excuse if the lights go out because of poor government decision-making," PUC commissioners said in comments filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The vast majority of the state's electricity comes from coal or hydropower.

The EPA's cost-benefit analysis of the MACT rule concluded that it would have minimal effect on reliability, and that the benefits of averting thousands of illnesses and premature deaths would be five to 13 times greater than the cost to industry and ratepayers.

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"In its 40-year history, there have been no instances in which the Clean Air Act has contributed to electric grid reliability problems," the agency said in a prepared statement.

The new standards will require utilities to reduce mercury emissions by 91 percent. Most mercury exposure comes from eating fish - the mercury enters water from the air and works its way up the food chain (mercury also occurs naturally in soils). In South Dakota, there are a dozen fish consumption advisories.

South Dakota has two coal-fired plants. Only Big Stone, near Milbank, is large enough to require compliance with the MACT rule, said Kyrik Rombough, air quality engineer with the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Cindy Kuismi, a spokeswoman for Otter Tail Power, Big Stone's majority owner, said the 36-year-old plant has proposed installing an air quality control system to meet a separate EPA smog directive. The upgraded equipment would allow Big Stone to meet MACT standards, she said. Otter Tail is a member of the Utility Air Regulatory Group.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in August released a report examining eight pending EPA rules that would affect coal-fired plants - to critics, a "regulatory train wreck." But the report noted that many of the rules have been years in the making; the MACT rule, for example, was required as part of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments. The report concluded that the power plants most likely to be affected are in trouble already. Old, inefficient and lacking modern pollution controls, these plants are candidates for replacement by more efficient natural gas plants.

House Republicans last month passed a bill that would block new pollution rules, including MACT. The White House said it would veto the bill if it survived the Democratic-led Senate. In separate statements, Sen. John Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem criticized the EPA's rules.

"We need a timeout on new job-killing regulations," Thune said. "I support promoting a clean, healthy environment, but we need to make sure the benefits of these efforts outweigh the economic costs."

Noem said, "This EPA is out of control and seems to show no regard for the impact their rules have on the real world. I strongly support delaying this rule so we can get a better handle on its impact and then craft something that protects our environment without destroying jobs."